Rain.
By some divine(ly shitty) luck, it started raining hard out of nowhere; with lightning and high wind and all. No warning, no nothing. The white clouds suddenly turned black out of nowhere, and it rained.
Rain sucked.
It was nice when I had a roof over my head—and it was still nice even now, but the problem was that Nowa was shivering.
So, I did the thing any good sister would and decided to wait the storm out. It would be stupid to stay under a big tree, so I decided that I’d make an Ice tent in a clearing.
It didn’t cost me any extra Mana or Aura to maintain it—the rain did a great job of keeping it cool. And, strangely, my Fox Fire didn’t seem to melt my own Ice at all.
So, there I was, all curled up inside my Ice tent with my fluffy tail wrapped around my sister, who was figuratively melting in my embrace.
Speaking of which…she didn’t try to stab me like that one time last month. Yes, we spent a whole month inside this forest with no clue where to go. It sucked, but that was my current situation.
“Nee-chan…I’m hungry.”
“Okay.”
Nodding, I reluctantly unwrapped my tail around her and went outside. Right outside our tent were a few dead rabbits that I hunted prior to the storm. I brought one in and tossed it in the middle of the tent.
“Nowa, please.”
“Okay!”
Nowa took out the knife that I gifted her and began skinning the rabbit. She didn’t know how to in the beginning, but after several hours of getting guidance from me, she could do it…like a professional. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought that she was used to traveling—just like me.
As for why I wasn’t skinning it myself…I found out that not just swords, my fear extended to all bladed weapons.
Weird. The fear didn’t extend to facing them—but just merely holding them made me want to scream my lungs out and puke.
“Sorry Nowa,” I muttered. “I made you do that dirty thing again.”
Nowa wiped the blood on her hand on the floor and shook her head. “No. Helping Nee-chan, fun.”
Still, I wasn’t convinced. A child like her shouldn’t do this kind of thing. It was my fault that she didn’t get to enjoy her childhood. My fault that our Mom died. My fault that—
“Oh, hello there, mind if we stay here, too?”
A voice, so soft and alluring that made me almost reflexively say “yes” rang out. However, I composed myself and quickly pulled Nowa behind me. I glowered at the owner of the voice—a woman with white hair like Nowa, but her eyes were blue, unlike Nowa’s.
She was…young—maybe in her 20s. At least, she seemed so. You can never be too sure in this world.
‘Wait, “we”? Does that mean there’s another one?’
And there was. Soon after, another woman stood at the entrance of my tent. She was a bit shorter than the white-haired woman, but her hair was raven like Ihwa’s. Though, her eyes were red—molten red like the Lava that almost killed me.
“Who are you!” I shouted after confirming their appearances. Nope, never met them, not in my past life nor this life. “Did Herald send you!?”
But the women ignored me and chatted with each other—which was a good thing since I could use this distraction to escape.
It should be noted that I could feel no strength coming from their bodies…but I could never be too careful.
“Eria,” the black-haired woman sighed. “Why do you even bother to do this? These children are not our problem.”
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“Remind me of who it is that made this storm again, Ast.”
“M-Me…” the black-haired woman stuttered.
Then, the white-haired woman—Eria suddenly waved her hand in our direction. Immediately after, a cage made of Ice appeared, trapping me and Nowa.
“Please stay there for a bit. I don’t want you guys getting all wet in the rain.”
“Let me out!” I shouted. Dammit, I thought I was being stealthy! Still, I wasn’t going to let myself be trapped here. I clawed at the cage and used my Fox Fire, trying to break it apart and melt it down. Though, in the process, my ears couldn’t help but pick up on their conversation.
“Great, you trapped them. What a great first impression.”
“Don’t act like you’re any better! You were going to leave them to suffer in the storm that you created!”
“B-But we should really get going. I don’t think staying in this dimension for longer is a good idea.”
“Fine,” Eria sighed. “But not after we compensate them a bit. You see the Red Strings tied to her soul, don’t you?”
“Yeah…bad omen.”
The women then approached the cage.
At this point, I’d already given up trying to escape and instead hugged Nowa tight to protect her.
Eria dismantled the cage and extended a hand to me like she was soothing some kind of wild beast.
“There there, don’t be scared. I’m just here to help you.”
“How do I know that Herald didn’t send you?”
It was then that I realized something. This Eria woman… She was a Dragon. Her pupils were vertical, and she had a scaly tail dragging on the floor.
I blinked. W-What? Dragon, here? Creatures that even Eric Solstar didn’t dare fight alone?
But I also calmed down. There was no way Herald could make dragons do anything.
“F-Fine, I believe you.” Gulping, I extended a hand out to her. “I-I’m Esther, and this is my sister, Nowa.”
Eria nodded and took my hand with a warm motherly smile. “I’m Eria, and that is my wife, Ast. We’re just passing by…”
“W-What are you going to do with us?” I asked, unable to contain my curiosity anymore. “Take us back to your lair? Make us brides of your kids?”
Suddenly, Ast burst into laughter. “HAHAHAHA! Did you hear what she said? What do you think, Eria? Would Glacia want to marry her?”
“Ast. Not. Funny.”
Then, Eria smiled apologetically. “I apologize for my wife’s behavior. This storm is in fact our doing, and I’m just trying to compensate for your suffering.”
“So…are you going to compensate for everything that’d suffered because of this? Because the list is surely long.”
“HAHAHAHA! I like this kid! We should seriously consider marrying Glacia to h—”
“Ast! Shut your mouth for a second!”
Eria turned toward us again after giving Ast a kick to the shin. “I don’t know long much longer I can tolerate my wife’s stupidity. So, I’ll just skip the pleasantries and compensate you right now.”
“...Money?”
“No.” She smiled. “Power.”
Then, a swirl of extremely familiar energy agglomerated in her hands.
“C-Causality?”
“So that’s what you call ‘Divinity’ here.” Eria chuckled. With a flick of her finger…my Status appeared.
‘W-What?’
But the surprise didn’t stop there. She grabbed it. Literally fucking grabbed it, and messed with what I could assume was my class.
After some intense moments, she let go of my Status and sighed.
Simultaneously, a Status panel appeared.
[You’ve attained the Class: {Soldier of the Stars} from the Sovereign of Stars.]
“Oh! Oh! Is it Fate-cutting time?”
“Yes, Ast. Cut her Fate or whatever.”
Ast walked up to me without even waiting for me to recover from my surprise. She leaned close to me and whispered, “Listen here, my wife may pity you and do this, but I don’t do things for free. All you need is to help me once when I require it.”
Then, Causality also gathered in her hands. However, her actions were weirder than Eria’s. She swung her hands around wildly as if cutting something. And by the end of it, Status appeared again.
[Gained: {Blessing of the Storms Monarch}]
“W-What?”
Before I could really comprehend anything, the Eria woman walked up to us again and threw a…soap bar at us.
“You should try using it. I don’t think the town guards would let you in if you smell like that. Now, goodbye, and be safe.”
When I came to sense, the women were already gone. No, my whole tent was gone! Along with the storm…and the jungle…and the dead rabbits that I was supposed to cook.
Actually, this seemed to be an entirely different area.
I gazed to my right—a crystal-clear pond of water was there. I then looked to my left. If I squinted my eyes hard, I could vaguely make out the figure of a tall wall. I knew what that meant: a town, possibly even a city.
Although the meeting with the Monarch and the Sovereign was…unexpected and weird, I didn’t think about it any further. ‘Nope, brain hurty. Let’s save it until I get Nowa safely into the town.’
I then looked down at the soap bar on my hand and sniffed myself.
‘Yeah, she’s right. We should really wash up.’